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It’s not question whether higher education is outrageously expensive or not, especially for those who pursue careers that require more than a Bachelor’s degree, like Speech-Language Pathology. Throughout my search I’ve seen some schools charge as much as $60,000+ for the 2.5 or so years of extra education needed for this field. Sorry, there’s no way I can begin to afford even thinking about the debt from that. For that to remotely even out I’d have to either run away to the circus with a dancing monkey, or pray that I managed to get a crazy scholarship amount of 50% or more in order to attend. Well, maybe I got a little carried away there. Some schools do hand out scholarships of up to 75%, which is great. Despite that, it’s a slim chance I’ll be getting that high of an amount. There’s also the fact that more money is handed out to doctoral students, slimming those chances even more.

Luckily, for those who are willing to put in some extra “time” and work, there are some other options for funding. There are some scholarships and grants available, but I’m not here to discuss those today. Instead, I’ve come across some unique opportunities for finding the needle in an intimidating large haystack that is limited educational funding.

First: State Department of Education Scholarships. There are several states, like New York, whose Department of Education will pay you to get your Master’s degree[1]. The catch? Well, there are quite a few, nothing outlandish, but things to consider[1]:

For the NY Dept. of Education (and most likely all other participating state’s education departments), you must attend one of the schools they designate as an affiliate of the program, all of which are in-state.

You must accept your spot in one of the schools before you are told if you receive the money. This may not be an issue for some cheaper schools, but those like New York Medical College, where tuition is quite a bit higher, this can be a problem for some. (But if you get the scholarship, then no problem!)

I should’ve mentioned this first. You have to go through an application process. It’s not simply an apply and you will receive the money. There’s paperwork and interviews and such.

As part of the agreement, after you are finished your education, you must serve at a high-need school for X amount of years. This may vary by state; I believe it was 6 years for New York. I’m not sure if they assign a school to you or you get to pick from a list.

Second: Federal Dept. of Education Scholarships. This one I know less about, but I’ll tell you what I do know. It’s similar to the state scholarships in that they will payfor your education. In addition to that, your end of the deal is working 10 years in a high-need school[2]. Other than that I’m not sure how the process goes or what universities take part in this exchange.

Third: US Military. There are a couple of ways that I’m aware of for this. You may either complete ROTC while in college so that you may study while training and then do reserves or active duty for some years after. Or you may do training/ reserves/active duty before you enter into college, that way you can focus on education later. (There is the option of school then military, but I’m not sure if they reimburse your education that you do prior to your involvement in the military.) [3] Both options require serving for some time. Some people actually stay and become an officer and work for the military in their respective field.

Fourth: Unique University Scholarships/Grants. Some schools may give you a stipend, pay some of your education or pay all of your education if you partake in a program of theirs. One such example is a grant offered by Western Carolina University where graduate SLP students take 18 extra credits for training that covered the topic of providing SLP services to children with severe disabilities. As part of the agreement students “receive one year of in-state tuition and some professional development,” while in return they “commit to serve people with severe and other disabilities for two years and to mentor at least five people in communication services for people with severe disabilities.[4]” You may want to check into universities that interest you to see if they have any grants or scholarships similar to this.

mini graduation cap on money (Photo credit: SalFalko)

Fifth: Other. There are several other loan repayment options that are available. Some are available for those in the medical sector, others for educational settings. Many states have loan repayment programs as well. For a list of these, and other possibilities, check out this article’s compilation of money-savers[5]. ASHA also lists MANY options for loan forgiveness and the like, so you might want to take a look [6]. There are also different funding options available by state, which you can view here [7].

Of course there are pros and cons to all of these options. It’s up to you to figure out what yours are and which ones weigh heavier than others. Hopefully one of these, or receiving scholarships from your prospective schools will help your financial woes. Best of luck to all applicants!

Do you know of any other ‘random’ or ‘unique’ graduate school funding opportunities? Perhaps a business hat may offer scholarships in exchange for working several years for them? Or certain states/schools will give in-state tuition to out-of-staters in exchange for something? Or, better yet, money without any catches? (Doubt it, but worth a try! haha)

So, I was recently given the opportunity to possibly volunteer in the Speech Dept. at a satellite campus of a local children’s hospital. This would just be for some hours a week, from July- August. Awesome, right?! The only issue is, the campus I was assigned to is 1-1.5 hours by bus, and the last 15 minutes, according to Google Maps, can only be completed by car/taxi. Well, I won’t have a car at school, and I don’t plan on taking a taxi… even if I could find one in that area?! Walking the last stretch is worse, adding another 1-2 hours. Yikes! I e-mailed the volunteer coordinator, asking how many days a week the position is. If it is only one, then perhaps I could find a means of transportation through a friend or something. Which would be great! But, we’ll have to wait and see. Luckily, the coordinator told me I could also defer this volunteer position until next summer, which would be great and I could possibly have more time volunteering since I’m not even back in the US til mid-July!

With that said, despite this one door possibly closing, another one is opening! A professor posted a volunteer opportunity on our club’s Facebook group. There’s a camp for children who communicate through Augmentative and Alternative Communication systems (AAC). It’s only for three days, which is perfect. Just enough time to get my feet wet in this division of SLP and Linguistics and actually see this form of communication first-hand. (Well there’s multiple forms of AAC from pointing to pictures, to gesturing all the way to simulated speech like Stephen Hawking.) So this would be an exciting camp to be a part of! I’ll be e-mailing the director later today about volunteering and let you know when I hear back! Stay tuned!

Remember how I mentioned that I registered for an online CEU company? Well, As of yesterday, I have now completed my first ‘non-CEU’ class. It is technically a CEU (Continuing Education Unit) course, but as I am not a professional Speech-Language Pathologist (yet), it doesn’t count for credit. But I still get a certificate of completion if I receive an 80% or above on the test that follows! And guess what? This girl got a 90%! I’m so happy! If you aren’t on this bandwagon yet, I suggest you do so. Yes, it costs about $49/year for a student account, but there’s plenty of other aspects that make it worth the while:

-Applications– Grad school applications, that is. These classes are extremely great assets to have in your educational arsenal when applying to grad school. They will show that you are not just dedicated to this field, but you are really, trulydedicated to it. You are not only interested in learning within the school system, but you want to learn more on your free time. That should get some of those admissions officers eyebrows raised.

–Knowledge– It’s always important to maintain and expand your knowledge– especially when it comes to the field you work in. Our field has become so vast in the past years that there’s much to know, almost too much. Taking these classes will assist you in this never-ending, but fun, endeavor. Say you read something in the news about Autism or Animal-Assisted Therapy and you want to learn more about those issues within Speech-Language Pathology, you can look up some courses about that and take them! There’s plenty to choose from.

–Education– On a similar note, these classes can act as fillers (possibly, not guaranteed) that provide extra information on topics you learning in school. Perhaps you’re behind or confused about a subject and want a different perspective, or you want to know some information before taking a class the upcoming semester. One way to accomplish those could be taking related classes through companies like these. Just make sure you get some sort of recognition at the end and ASHA approves of the company. One way to do that is by looking for classes on this site: http://www.asha.org/eweb/csdynamicpage.aspx?webcode=coursesearch

–Variety of Methods– At least the website I use has a variety of means through which the learner may view the material. So, whether you are a visual, auditory, or text-based learner, there are classes for you. In fact, the same class may be available in all three mediums, which is great. There are also live Webinars you may partake in, where you can ask the presenter questions while he/she teaches the material. I’ve also seen virtual conferences are available!

–Extra Material- Many classes also have supplemental information for your benefit. You can save and print them out as you deem necessary. These are great to have for future reference and to jog your memory if you forget something later down the road. Of course, if you want to use them for therapy or handing out to clients, then you’ll have to ask permission from the presenter.

Those are just a few reasons to take some CEU classes for no credit as a student. I’m sure there are plenty more!

Each year the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has a convention for all professionals whose work related to communication (speech-language pathologists, audiologists, speech and hearing scientists). Along with the professionals, students in the respective fields are invited to attend the event as well. There are a plethora of speakers to listen to, with many slots for attendees to choose from over the 3 day convention (Nov.14-16 in Chicago) . In addition to speakers, there is an exhibition room filled with booths from graduate programs, businesses, etc. Such a superb learning opportunity!

ASHA recognizes that students may not have the funding to attend this event, which is a relief. To aid students who want to attend, they have the opportunity for students to volunteer at the convention. Students can choose which area(s) of the convention they would like to volunteer in and get refunded the cost of the convention. Not only does this help financially, but it gives students the opportunity to actually see what goes into maintaining and running the convention, as well as networking opportunities! Who could pass that up?

There’s just a small catch– only some students are selected. They also give priority to NSSLHA members. It’s understandable, as I’m sure they receive more than a couple boat-loads of applications! Plus, if you’re aiming on becoming a professional SLP, why wouldn’t you join the student organization? It does cost some money, but it’s a great thing to have on your resume and in general. You have access to Special Interest Groups and articles and much more.

With all this said, I sent in my application to volunteer… so excited! Now it’s just a waiting game until October 2nd. I guess this’ll act as a preview to grad school application season and the waiting!

For those of you who would like to volunteer, here’s a link to the application: http://www.asha.org/Forms/Convention-Student-Volunteer-Application/

Although I´ve been aware of voice therapy for teachers, musicians and actors or accent reduction therapy for foreigners, I hadn´t given much thought to transgendered people. It´s not due to a fear or ignorance of that population, I´ve just heard more about therapy that was available for foreigners, teachers, etc. After receiving a text bringing up therapy for transgendered people, the gears in my mind started cranking… there´s plenty of people who go through these operations, so why wouldn´t there be therapy for their voices? After all, hearing someone´s voice can be a pretty decent indicator of their gender.

Just a simple search of ¨Transgender voice speech pathology¨(creative, I know) brought up quite a bit of information! There were even some scholarly articles and books listed, albeit most were in Transgender scholarly journals and not written by speech researchers. None the less, the topics seemed interesting! Some of the non-scholarly webpages that were brought up were articles on voice therapy for those that went through the transition, or stories about voice therapy. Some were even speech pathologists´websites stating one of their specialities was teansgender voice femininization-masculinization. There were even fellow transgender people (not certified speech-voice therapists) offering vocal therapy services to teach their techniques. Even the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) had information on transgender voice therapy! How was I not in the know about this?

From what I read, there´s quite a bit that goes into therapy for these clients. For men that are now female, there is a bigger obstacle of obtaining a feminine voice, as estrogen doesn´t make the voice higher. Female voices also have a higher pitch and rely on intonation rather than volume to stress words in an utterance. These two facts came from the second article below, which has more discrepancies between male and female speech and body langauge. There´s plenty more information in these articles/websites.

This pdf lists quite a few volunteer opportunities for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology students. There are available in several states, like Ohio and Indiana. Even if you are unable to do these opportunities due to distance, they can still help you conjure ideas for possible placements in your neck of the woods! (Sorry it´s a link, I tried to make it into a picture, but my computer doesn´t want to place nice today.)

If you’re like me, you want to know at least some possibilities for the future and where you could be headed once you graduate. Or you could just want to throw some information at your parents about why this is a good degree and how there really is a demand for SLPs and SLPAs almost everywhere (especially schools). Well, in order to feed both your parents or your conscious, there are multiple sites that show current job openings in whatever town you are hoping has openings, as well as the credentials needed, benefits, and sometimes even the pay! There are sometimes CFY postings as well! (Of course, it depends if your area has openings, most likely if you tell the search a specific town and no extra mile radius this will be difficult.. so expand your horizons!)

So here I’ve compiled a (not completely exhaustive) list of possible websites you can scour for openings:

Behind This Blog

This blog was created to help unleash my excitement about becoming a SLP one day. I decided to write this while I'm still in my undergraduate years, as I haven't seen many SLP blogs written by undergrads. So, I thought, "Why not?" It can help others who are still in the process of getting their Bachelors learn about the process, classes and such to be an SLP... and just regular advice on college in general. :) I also will post stuff pertinent to the field, such as interesting research or articles, so grad students and professionals alike can read the blog as well! As my knowledge expands and my experience grows I'll be able to add more information as well. :)

I'm currently a junior at a university in western Pennsylvania. Along with a desire to help others, I've always enjoyed languages, psychology, sociology, and writing. Eventually all of these were able to be compiled into what should be an exciting career as an SLP! Besides those, I also enjoy photography, travel, being with friends, art and learning. (Yes, I'm a nerddd!)

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